FOOD

I am relegated to the garage.  Sort of.  You see, I am 1/5 of a family, and while the rest of them are pretty good at eating well, none of them eat like me…..vegan, lots of raw, and food I wouldn’t have recognized as a kid growing up in the Midwest (we’re not exactly known for our tempeh in Wisconsin!).

We have one fridge, which I mostly dominate with fruits and veggies, a deep freezer which is mostly bulk soups, and a pantry that is mostly canned goods, teas, flours, breads, tortillas, etc.  However, I have a lot of “other food”…we’re talking bulk dried beans, rice paper rolls, Ener-G egg replacement for baking, a plethora of rices, etc…that don’t fit in the house.  So…I have hippie boxes in the attached garage (it’s what we’ve taken to calling “mom’s food”).  I started with one, and now have three.  One is exclusively for spices (I’m a spice snob).  One of these days, I’ll get to have all my food live in the house.  Someday 🙂

hippie boxes, plus boxes of bulk channa dahl and soy beans (for homemade soymilk), and buckwheat groats

Yesterday I had a raw wrap for breakfast (typical collard leaf stuffed with tons of veggies, guacamole, and pickles), some pineapple for a snack, miso soup and sushi with D for lunch, and some quinoa puffed cakes (like rice cakes) with guacamole and pickles for dinner.

sweet potato, avocado, and broccoli rolls

Suzie’s cakes with guac and pickles! I love that combo…

Today was a Whole Foods salad and a green juice for breakfast, some Post Punk Kitchen red Thai curry rice and kale soup for lunch, and popcorn for dinner (no I’m not proud of that one, but it is what it is).  Snacked on watermelon, grapes, and pineapple as snacks.

garlicky kale, spinach, tomato and onion salad, and some roasted spuds

green juice

first stage of the soup. Only change I made from the recipe was to use short-grain brown rice and red kale

a BIG bowl!

I have a batch of granola bars from Practically Raw Desserts going in the dehydrator (based on the batter, these are going to be awesome….), and I have a ton more planned (raw breads, kale chips, more desserty things) throughout the weekend.  I’ve been moving more and more towards higher raw eating, and always love finding new ways to make it fun and interesting.

FITNESS

I’m a big fan of hot yoga, as any regular reader knows.  For some reason, we don’t have many non-hot studios around here, so I think I got into hot yoga out of necessity more than desire, but I do enjoy it.  Especially now that I’m not running, I appreciate more the harder workout that hot yoga is for me.

That said, when I travel, finding regular hot yoga studios is more difficult.  Hot yoga is essentially “regular” hatha or ashtanga (or other style normally done in a non-heated environment) yoga done in a heated room.  The more popular version of hot yoga is Bikram yoga, which is a more popular/trendy style of 26 specific postures done over 90 minutes in a 105 degree/40% humidity room.  After years of doing yoga in my area, Bikram has come to town.  I checked it out yesterday….

So here’s my take on it.  Bikram style is a very specific sequence; it’s always the same 26 postures done twice each.  The room is always lit brightly, carpeted, and there is no music.  It’s sort of military-meets-yoga style to me (as a survivor of real military boot camp, I feel I can say this!).

Other hot yoga classes I usually go to are in dimly lit rooms, heated from 95-105 degrees, never carpeted, though floors vary, and the sequences vary as widely as the whims of the instructors.  Sometimes I love them, other times I don’t.  There’s always music – some traditional yoga music, and some upbeat modern (those are my favorite), and they vary in length from 60-75-90 minutes.

The jury is still out in how I feel about one vs. the other.  I certainly was a hot sweaty mess when I left the Bikram class, but I’m not sure (based on my HR monitor) that I actually burned any more calories than normal.  I got a little light-headed in the last 10 minutes, and didn’t like that water breaks were prescribed vs taking them when you need in my other classes.  That said, I liked the instructor and her explanations of everything we were doing.  None of the poses were new to me, so I think that helped.  I was also warned that the first class isn’t pleasant, and to give it a few.  I’m thinking about sticking to this style for a month to see if I notice anything different – especially if I get stronger due to always doing the same pose sequence.  I’ll keep ya posted on that.

my Bikram burn

LIFE

Well, the most notable thing for me is that yesterday I woke up the mother of 3 kids, and went to sleep the mother of 2 kids and 1 adult.  Yep…my oldest turned 18.  I was fine about it all until I went to bed (which was close to 1 am since I was waiting up for her to get home from her night out!) and started thinking about A being 18.  It’s cool…though she’s still a kid with a lot to learn.  She doesn’t always think she has anything left to learn, but I was no different at her age.

Other than that, I went to Whole Foods and made the rounds at some farmer’s market’s and U-Pick Strawberry fields.  I live in SE Virginia, which is largely tobacco and cotton areas.  Finding a big farmer’s market around here isn’t easy (though you can’t tell people around here that the Virginia Beach farmer’s market is small and a little sad….).  I grew up in WI where farmer’s markets were as big as a small mall.  *sigh

Anyway, I made the trek to a few in North Carolina (I live pretty close to the state line), and came home with a trunk full of fun.  Fruits, veggies, spicy pickles (yes…I love pickles), and juices.  All in all, a really good haul!

one of the farmer’s markets had these little wheel barrow shopping carts!

D isn’t feeling so hot, so while he took a nap, I finally watched Tron with my youngest R.  We made popcorn and enjoyed the movie very much.  The rest of the weekend will be wash and prepping foods for the coming busy week!  Oh…and I leave for Portland Thursday!!!